SPRINGFIELD, Mo. (KY3)—Animal advocates warn pet owners to double-check their pet’s microchip after a popular Texas-based company, Save This Life, closed its site. This could leave pets without information online about how to get home if they get lost.
“We’re not saying the chip is no good. The company’s just not there to answer the phone anymore, so you still want to know if my dog gets out, are we going to find it?” said Dr. Philip Brown, a veterinarian with Animal Care Center in Springfield.
If you’re unsure where your pet was microchipped, contact the rescue or veterinarian where it was chipped to find out, or go to your vet to have it scanned. The vet can then look up the chip number.
“I would contact the place you got your pet from, so if you got him from a rescue, you can check with your local rescue or the person you adopted your pet from. If you’re not sure, you are able to bring your pet up to your vet’s office or to a rescue, and we can scan the microchip and give you the number. You can look that up online through a microchip lookup tool. That should be able to tell you the company that your pets registered,” said McKenzie Palmer, marketing coordinator for the Humane Society of Southwest Missouri.
The good news is that it’s an easy fix. If your pet is registered through Save This Life, you can register it through another company. Popular options are AKC Reunite or PetLink, but there are others. There is usually a one-time fee involved.
“I wouldn’t get all anxious over the company going out of business because it’s still in a registry should still be in a registry, and I would verify that’s what I’d do now,” said Dr. Brown.
“If it is under Save This Life, you’ll just want to make sure and reregister that ship as soon as possible to make sure your pet stays protected,” said Palmer.
It’s a good reminder to double-check that your pet’s information is up to date online as well, even if it isn’t with Save This Life. Veterinarians like Dr. Brown say that they often run into issues where the chip information isn’t updated or hasn’t been registered.
“That’s our biggest problem: people don’t register them, and then they move, and they don’t update the address and name or the email address or the telephone number if they change brands of carriers and all. So that information has to be changed in that national registry every time you move, and we get that a lot of times,” said Dr. Brown.
Having your veterinarian check your pet’s chip at its annual checkup is also a good idea. Sometimes, chips can migrate, so the vet should scan them to make sure they’re still readable and where they are.
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